1080° Snowboarding
Nintendo EAD |puball=Nintendo |pla=Nintendo 64 |rdjp=February 28, 1998 |rdna=April 1, 1998 |rdpal=November 30, 1998 |des1=Masamichi Abe |des2=Mitsuhiro Takano |mus=Kenta Nagata |art=Yoshitaka Nishikawa }} , often referred to as just '1080°', is a snowboard racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 and first released in Japan on 28 February 1998. It was re-released on the Wii's Virtual Console service in 2008. The player controls one of five playable snowboarders from a third-person perspective using a combination of buttons to jump and perform tricks over eight levels. ''1080° was announced on 21 November 1997 and developed over nine months; it garnered critical acclaim and won an Interactive Achievement Award from the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences. 1080° sold over a million units, and a second installment, 1080° Avalanche, was released for the Nintendo GameCube on 28 November 2003. Gameplay The player controls a snowboarder in one of six modes. 1080° has two trick modes (trick attack and contest), three race modes (race, time attack, and multiplayer), a training mode, and an options mode. The objective of the game is either to arrive quickly at a level's finish line or to receive maximum points for trick combinations. In 1080°'s two trick modes, trick attack and contest, players accrue points from completed tricks. In contest mode, players perform tricks and snowboard past flags for points. Trick attack mode requires players to perform a series of tricks throughout a designated level. The game features 25 tricks, all of which are performed by using a combination of circular positions of the control stick, the R button, and the B button; point values are allocated based on complexity and required time. The two types of tricks are grab tricks, in which the board is grabbed in a specific way, or spin tricks, in which the snowboarder spins the board a certain number of degrees. The 1080° spin requires nine actions, the most of any trick in the game.Operation Card for 1080° Snowboarding. Nintendo Co., Ltd. 1998. 1080° has three race modes; in these modes, victory can be achieved by taking separate routes within a course and balancing the snowboarder after a jump to avoid speed loss. Tricks are scored in race modes, but do not count toward victory. In match race mode, the player competes in a series of races against AI-controlled snowboarders. The game times the player throughout the level and players receive a damage meter which fills if the snowboarder falls down or is knocked over. The difficulty level in match races can be set to easy, medium, or hard, adjusting the complexity and number of races. If the player fails at defeating an AI competitor, they must retire. The player is given three chances to beat the computer before the game is over. Players may initially choose from five snowboarding characters: two from Japan, and one each from Canada, USA, and the United Kingdom. Each snowboarder has different abilities and is suited for different levels and modes, since each has varying statistics in fields such as technique, speed, and weight. Three additional snowboarders are unlocked by completing certain game levels and modes. Eight snowboards are initially available for every character, and one additional snowboard may be unlocked later in the game. Each board also excels in different situations, since each have different strengths in categories such as balance and edge control. Development 1080°'s release was announced on 21 November 1997 at Nintendo's SpaceWorld trade show; the game's working title was then Vertical Edge Snowboarding. Before the game's release, journalists were able to play 1080° at the January 1998 Nintendo Gamers' Summit. 1080° was programmed by Englishmen Giles Goddard and Colin Reed, developed and published by Nintendo, and produced by Shigeru Miyamoto. When developing 1080°, Goddard and Reed used a technique called "skinning" to eliminate joints between the polygons composing the characters. Their programming used a combination of standard animation and inverse kinematics, creating characters whose appearance during collisions is affected by what object is hit, what direction the collision occurs in, and the speed at which the collision takes place. Tommy Hilfiger outfits and Lamar snowboards appear throughout 1080° as product placement. 1080°'s soundtrack of "techno and rappy beats" with "thrashy, foozed-out vocals" was composed by Kenta Nagata, who also composed soundtracks for Mario Kart 64 and other Nintendo games. 1080°'s development took place from April or May 1997 to March 1998. The game was released on 28 February 1998 in Japan and on 1 April 1998 in North America. Nintendo delayed the game's European release because they hoped to boost sales with a winter release; 1080° was eventually released on 30 November 1998, in Europe and the PAL region. References External links * Official Japanese website * Current site by at club.nintendo.com